b'104636636THE 1971 BROWNLOW MEDAL, 9ct gold, blue enamel; engraved verso VICTORIAN FOOTBALL LEAGUECHAS BROWNLOW TROPHYSEASON 1971Won by IAN HARLOW STEWARTIn 1971 Stewart was part of the VFLs first major swap of star players, when he moved to Richmond and the volatile Billy Barrot switched to St Kilda. Despite their great playing records, both mens form had waned during the previous season and there was doubt whether they could reproduce their best. Stewart confounded the doubters with a brilliant season, scoring 21 votes to take out his third Brownlow. At both of his clubs he formed great partnerships with champion centre half forwards, Darrel Baldock at St Kilda, and Royce Hart at Richmond, each of whom were fellow Tasmanians. What a legacy these three footballers created!Wearing the Number 2 jumper in which Roy Wright had won two Brownlow medals (in 1952 and 1954), Stewart burned from the start of 1971, and rapidly gained favouritism to win another Brownlow Medal. Meanwhile, Barrot lasted two games with the Saints, was dropped and then cleared to Carlton by mid-season. There, he played a handful of games for the Tigers old rivals, but had a physical confrontation with coach Ron Barassi at half time in the last round of the season, which resulted in Barrot walking away from VFL football forever.The 1971 Brownlow Medal count was one of the closest in VFL/AFL history. With one round of votes remaining, any of eight players could have won the medal. However, with the final vote of the evening, VFL administrative director Eric McCutchan announced that Stewart had polled three votes to win the medal outright. He went on to star in Richmonds semi-final victory over Collingwood, which set up a tantalising clash with St Kilda in the preliminary final, with Richmond hot favourite to win and advance to the Grand Final. On a very wet day, the Saints gained some vengeance for the deal by keeping Stewart relatively quiet and winning the game by five goals. In all, Stewart played 207 league games; (St Kilda 1963-70, 129 games, 24 goals; Richmond 1971-75, 78 games, 5 goals), played in two premierships and won three Brownlow Medals with two different clubs. He won St Kildas best and fairest twice in 1964 and 1966, Richmonds once in 1971, represented Victoria four times, was an All Australian player in 1966, and is an official AFL Legend and member of the AFL Hall of Fame. $50,00075,000'